{"id":1711,"date":"2026-05-06T14:36:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T18:36:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/?p=1711"},"modified":"2026-05-06T14:36:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T18:36:54","slug":"the-hidden-cost-of-improving-your-teaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/teaching\/the-hidden-cost-of-improving-your-teaching\/","title":{"rendered":"The hidden cost of improving your teaching"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Adapted from \u201cWhen Extra Effort Makes You Worse at Your Job<\/a>\u201d by\u00a0Mouna El Mansouri<\/a>,\u00a0Karoline Strauss<\/a>, and\u00a0Doris Fay<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Proactivity can help people find more meaning in their work<\/a>, increase engagement, and lead to better processes and outcomes. But across multiple research studies, we found a consistent pattern<\/a>: The more effort participants spend trying to improve how they perform their core tasks, the worse their cognitive performance tends to be by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also found evidence for why this happens. Proactive work tends to break from established routines\u2014which help conserve mental energy\u2014and can create fatigue that makes later work harder. Revising course materials or experimenting with new tools, for example, may leave you with fewer cognitive resources for teaching, meetings, or grading later in the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That short-term strain does not erase the value of proactivity. But it does suggest that improvement work should be approached with more care, especially in roles that already require sustained focus and judgment. Here are three ways to protect yourself while still improving your work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Take breaks<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research beyond our study<\/a> suggests that regular breaks<\/a> can help ease mental fatigue. On days when you are doing more proactive work, building in real pauses may help you recover some mental resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For educators, this matters when you are designing or revising a course<\/a>, reworking an assignment, or developing a new classroom approach. Short breaks<\/a> can help keep that effort from spilling over into later responsibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Be thoughtful about timing and task prioritization (Course (re)Design Workshops in May and August)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If possible, plan demanding improvement work for times when your schedule is lighter. High-effort tasks such as restructuring a syllabus<\/a>, building a new rubric<\/a>, or redesigning a group project<\/a>may be harder to do well on days already packed with advising, meetings, or other obligations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It may also help to prioritize important or high-stakes tasks earlier in the day or separate process-improvement work from responsibilities that require immediate precision and attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you coordinate a course or program, helping colleagues adjust timelines<\/a> or sequence improvement work more realistically may reduce some of that strain as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Create room for experimentation (Faculty Fellows Program)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trying new approaches rarely goes perfectly the first time. When people feel intense pressure to get everything right immediately, that pressure can add to the mental demands of improvement work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A more sustainable approach is to create conditions in which experimentation is possible, mistakes are treated as part of learning, and changes can be tested on a smaller scale before they are expanded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For educators, that might mean piloting a new activity<\/a> before redesigning an entire course or making one meaningful adjustment<\/a> at a time rather than overhauling everything at once.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adapted from \u201cWhen Extra Effort Makes You Worse at Your Job\u201d by\u00a0Mouna El Mansouri,\u00a0Karoline Strauss, and\u00a0Doris Fay Proactivity can help people find more meaning in their work, increase engagement, and lead to better processes and outcomes. But across multiple research studies, we found a consistent pattern: The more effort participants spend trying to improve how they perform […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-teaching"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Kathryn Byrnes","author_link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/author\/kbyrnes\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1711"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1712,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1711\/revisions\/1712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}